Tim Worstall

It is all obvious or trivial except…

 

 

Entries Tagged as 'Law'

This right wing hanging and flogging thing

March 18th, 2010 · 3 Comments

You want to know how to control the abusers of children who patrol the internet?
Bring back the death penalty for murder.
That’s the Mirror. So it’s not “right wing” to be baying for snapped necks then really.
I don’t of course, agree myself. But if they were to bring it in for the use of Facebook [...]

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Tags: Law

On the rule of law

March 18th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “It is unfortunate that the court has enabled Catholic Care to exploit what was obviously an error in the drafting of the equality legislation. The loophole this created was never intended to be used this way.”
Now that’s about adoption and [...]

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Tags: Law

We liberals must hang together

March 16th, 2010 · No Comments

For most assuredly we’ll hang separately.
Yes, Harry’s Place, hit by another idiot libel claim from the same set of solicitors that have failed dismally with the last three.
How many more such things before being able to get them judged as vexatious litigants? Something which, I assume, would be bad for business for a bunch of [...]

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Tags: Law

Harridan Hateman

March 15th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Seems that she’s getting a bit of a bollocking this morning:
Persistent claims that only six per cent of rapes end in conviction was seen as a useful “campaigning tool ” by some but was “extremely unhelpful”, warned Baroness Stern, the cross-bench peer who carried out [...]

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Tags: Law

How to discuss this matter

March 9th, 2010 · 4 Comments

Ministers have suggested that all breeds of dogs be covered by compulsory third party liability policies, and have asked whether owners who fail to take out insurance should be punished with fines or other sanctions.
There are pet insurance companies. They would clearly benefit from the passing of [...]

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Tags: Law

Domicile matters

March 7th, 2010 · 6 Comments

Contrary to those who claim that domicile is some strange beast grafted onto the UK tax system,. it’s actually quite an important part of the Common Law:
But at the heart of last week’s hearing is the issue of where the Turkish Cypriot tycoon was domiciled when he died.
Erkin and his family insist that Ramadan Guney’s [...]

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Tags: Law · Ragging on Ritchie

Indeterminate sentences

March 4th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Welcome to the modern world Mr. Kafka!
The report said the probation system lacks the resources to deal with the thousands of prisoners on Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPP), who now make up one in fifteen of the total prison population.
Indeterminate sentences were introduced in 2005 for [...]

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Tags: Law

And then?

March 4th, 2010 · 6 Comments

I’m a big fan of asking “and then?”
You know, someone comes up with a bright idea to make the world a better place and all too often no one’s asking, well, yes, but what happens after that? What will follow? And then?
But under an amendment to the Equality Bill tabled in the House of Lords [...]

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Tags: Law

Life means life

March 4th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Much as people don’t believe it a life sentence does in fact mean that. Murder someone and you might only serve a few years, this is true, but the life sentence ios always there in the background.
Breach the licence conditions and you’ll be back in jail, no trial, no court and no lawyer to save [...]

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Tags: Law

Good grief

February 24th, 2010 · 7 Comments

I actually find myself agreeing with Gordon Brown:
For let us be clear: death as an option and an entitlement, via whatever bureaucratic processes a change in the law might devise, would fundamentally change the way we think about mortality.The risk of pressures – however subtle – on the frail and the vulnerable, [...]

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Tags: Law

This is theft

February 20th, 2010 · 5 Comments

The Abbey Road recording studios could be listed within a week as part of a move by English Heritage to ensure that they are not turned into flats.
Currently the building has a value of x.
By listing the building so as to remove possible uses the value is now x minus something.
It must be x [...]

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Tags: Civil Liberty · Law

Oh my

February 13th, 2010 · 4 Comments

Now I know that bankers aren’t the most loved of creatures at present but:
Barclays Capital has been forced to break contractual agreements with some of its star bankers after bowing to regulatory demands on bonus payments.
The investment banking arm of Britain’s third biggest bank on Friday set aside a [...]

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Tags: Finance · Law

Ali Dizaei

February 9th, 2010 · 7 Comments

Commander Ali Dizaei became the highest-ranking officer to be convicted of a criminal offence in 33 years. A jury took 10 minutes to convict…..
Those last 7 words speak volumes about this case.

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Tags: Law

The Law’s the law

February 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment

It is impossible to understand why their lordships think that such a consideration should take precedence over diminishing a clear and present danger to national security.
Well, you know, actually, umm, it’s not impossible to understand.
The judges on the Supreme Court understand something which all too many seem to have [...]

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Tags: Civil Liberty · Law

On the rule of law

February 3rd, 2010 · 14 Comments

One of the things that definitely comes out of studies on what produces economic growth is that the rule of law is a necessary but not sufficient condition for there to be sustained economic growth.
If contracts can be torn up at bureaucratic or political whim then investments tend not to be made because of those [...]

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Tags: Finance · Law

I’m not entirely convinced

January 31st, 2010 · 5 Comments

At a special “review conference” in Kampala, Uganda, the nations which have signed up to the court, including Britain, will consider a proposal to let the court try the “crime of aggression” – the offence allegedly committed by Tony Blair.
If the proposal, backed by more than [...]

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Tags: Law

There are worse ways of being remembered

January 26th, 2010 · No Comments

The ruddy-faced Maxwell-Hyslop’s fascination with procedure both infuriated and delighted his colleagues. He was described as “the finest procedure bore of his generation” and “one of those heroic figures in whom tirelessness and tiresomeness are combined in equal measure”. Even those who admired [...]

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Tags: Law

Scott Ritter

January 15th, 2010 · 12 Comments

Umm, yes, well, I dunno.
Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, has been arrested for allegedly propositioning what he believed to be a 15-year-old girl on an internet chat room.
The truth of the matter, of course I have absolutely no idea.
But it would be so terribly convenient if such a sterling critic of the [...]

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Tags: Law

Stephen Gough

January 13th, 2010 · 19 Comments

Yes, I know, the law is the law:
The former Royal Marine, who became notorious for his naked hike from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2003, has spent much of the past seven years in prison for repeatedly appearing nude in public.
He was yesterday found guilty of breaching the [...]

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Tags: Law

No, it ain’t legislation

January 10th, 2010 · 8 Comments

Pavements are being left covered in ice because of “ludicrous” laws that put home owners and businesses at risk of being sued if they try to clear them.
Later in the piece they refer to legislation. And it ain’t legislation.
But the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, the professional body representing 36,000 health [...]

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Tags: Law